Don’t let tree roots compromise your plumbing

Don’t let tree roots compromise your plumbing

Are you looking for plumbing repair in Chicago? There are a lot of things that can cause damage to your plumbing at your home. Did you know that tree roots can do a lot of damage? How do you keep a lush garden whilst also ensuring tree roots don’t ruin your pipes? Read on to find out more.

Tree roots and your sewer laterals

Each home owner is responsible for ensuring the maintenance of the sewer lateral for their home. This is the pipe that connects the sewer system of the home to the main sewer pipe which is under the street. Since you cannot see these pipes, most home owners simply have no clue that they need to be maintaining this. When something goes wrong in the home’s plumbing system, it’s hard to tell what the problem could be. It is important that you get a Chicago plumber to come out and assess the problem and help you come up with a solution to keeping tree roots out of your sewer laterals. Tree roots damage sewer pipes by growing inside of the pipes. Since sewer pipes are filled with water and rich nutrients that trees love, it’s only natural that their roots would grow into these pipes to seek them out. This however can lead to blockages. You can usually tell if there’s a blockage when:

Raw sewage backs up in your home’s pipes. If you find awful smelling sewage coming out of your drains, this is a very obvious warning sign that your sewer system is blocked.

Water comes out of your drain. This happens before the raw sewage appears, so treat it as an early warning sign.

There is a gurgling sound in your pipes. Each time you run water or flush a toilet, you may hear a gurgling sound running through your home. This is also a big early warning sign.

This is not something that should be treated lightly. Blockages in sewer pipes and other parts of your home’s plumbing caused by tree roots can do massive damage to your home. You will end up having to dig up the front part of your home, re-construct walls and replace driveways.